[Percutaneous radiotherapy in thyroid malignancies--curative and palliative viewpoints]

The treatment results of percutaneous radiotherapy of 85 patients with thyroid malignomas treated between 1972 and 1979 are presented in a retrospective study. 49 patients were treated for curative purposes, 36 patients suffering from metastases were submitted to palliative therapy. Primary radiotherapy was performed as pendulum or oblique-field irradiation up to 60 Gy, and patients with metastases or local recurrences were submitted to stationary-field or contralateral irradiation up to 40 (-50) Gy depending on the tumor site. In both groups, prognosis and survival time depend much more on the histologic differentiation than on the tumor dimension and the age of the patient. If the thyroid malignomas were well differentiated, we observed survival times of several years, even in case of extended, eventually filiarized tumors. On the other hand, the average survival time of patients with dedifferentiated thyroid tumors was only four months, with even worse results in case of only subtotally operable or completely inoperable anaplastic tumors. In these cases we should like to avoid an indication for percutaneous radiotherapy and to recommend, if possible, palliative surgical measures the effect of which will be seen more rapidly.